Photoshop.Fix.Magazine.Mar.2005

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PHOTOSHOP FIX 2

RENDER PAINTERLY FORM AND DEPTH

F E A T U R E D A R T I S T

Damian Fagan (San Francisco) altered brush dynamics to create custom brushes for the look of a traditional painting in his fantastical interpretation of Pescadora, a mythical fi sherwoman.

� Fagan created a foundation for the

painting by drawing elements with the

lasso tool and fi lling the selections with

solid colors that would serve as middle

values for shadows and highlights. Each

element was drawn and fi lled on its own

layer for individual manipulation.

� Fagan employed a simple way to

mold 3D shapes from the fl at-color

elements without applying more color.

In the Brushes palette menu, he chose

and appended the Natural Brushes 2

presets, and selected the Wet Brush 60

tip. He then customized the tip in the

Brushes palette by altering the Shape

Dynamics and varying the intensity of

the stroke pressure in Other Dynam-

ics so the brush would assume a more

painterly quality. Fagan selected the

burn tool, chose his custom Wet Brush

tip, and darkened each element’s edges.

He started with a low Exposure setting

in the Options bar and slowly increased

the percentage to create dimension

and form. Depending on the color of

the element, he could deepen the color

or even vary its hue as he did with the

water wings, which took on an reddish

quality. He then contrasted the contours

with the dodge tool. “While the burn and

dodge tools are valuable for modifying

exposure in photography, using them in

this manner simulates the application of

varying hues,” he says. “I can modify the

existing color values of an element and

ensure the resulting color range will be

consistent with the original color value.”

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� Since it is diffi cult to paint smooth

arcs or uniform edges with traditional

brushes, Fagan wanted the hard edges

of his Wacom-drawn elements to appear

more hand-painted. He sampled a color

along the edge of an element with the

eyedropper tool, selected the brush tool,

decreased its size, and painted along

an edge. This method worked well to

muddy the bottom contour of the torso.

While he painted on the element’s edge,

he changed color periodically, then

ducked in and out with the blur tool

for some subtle irregularities.

� With the basic shapes formed, Fagan

further enhanced the realistic paint

effect. He added a new layer above an

element’s existing layer and used the

brush tool with the same custom Wet

Brush tip to paint loose strokes and

blotches of color. He often chose high-

contrast and complementary colors to

stand out from shapes underneath, such

as adding orange and yellow blotches

on the face.

� In the past, Fagan used the Texturizer

fi lter to simulate the look of canvas, but

it created a perfectly uniform texture

that looked computer-generated when

printed on canvas paper. “In traditional

painting, the paint sometimes thins out,

and the texture of the canvas shows

through,” he notes. To recreate this,

Fagan made a canvas brush using his

custom Wet Brush tip. He added to the

dynamics of the brush by selecting

Texture in the Brushes palette and click-

ing the arrow next to the Texture icon for

a pull-down list of textures. He clicked

the arrow in the textures list, appended

the Texture Fill 2 set, and chose the

Weave 2 preset. He created a new layer

and used his custom canvas brush to dab

white in open areas of the background.

He also used this method to create the

moon, then lowered the layer Opacity

to blend it with the background. Making

sure to adjust only the brush Size and

not the Master Diameter, Fagan used

a smaller version of the custom canvas

brush in detailed areas. He also used the

brush on a separate layer to make shad-

ows on the swim cap. He sampled color

on the edge of the cap, painted with the

brush, and set the layer blending mode

to Multiply.

Fagan used a default brush, Dune

Grass, to add detail to the sea fl oor in

the lower right corner.

To add a whimsical texture to the

background, he appended the

Special Effect Brushes from the

Brushes palette menu and selected

the Hypno Lines brush tip to apply

at various sizes.

Damian Fagan

415.816.4747

[email protected]

www.snakeandrobot.com


mailto:[email protected]

http://www.snakeandrobot.com

3 MARCH 2005


PHOTOSHOP FIX 4

PUT IT UP ON THE BIG SCREEN

F E A T U R E D A R T I S T

Natasha Vasiljevic (Toronto) found that combining traditional outdoor photos with digital studio images gave her the right perspective to simulate the wide-screen perspective of an opening fi lm sequence.

� While visiting Detroit, Vasiljevic felt

the buildings and streets epitomized a

typical urban landscape she had seen

in American fi lms. She captured images

using a Nikon 35mm with the intention

of creating a wide-screen perspective

from an opening movie sequence.

“I was envisioning how movies will

introduce a scene at an odd angle with

faces and bodies passing very closely by

the camera,” she recalls. “I wouldn’t be

able to shoot that kind of perspective

in the fi eld, so I knew I would need to

incorporate digital images.” She scanned

the Detroit images, using an Epson 2450

scanner to get “that raw look a not-so-

sharp scanner can have,” then digitally

shot a model in her studio. To simulate

distorted camera angles, she opened the

Detroit and model images in Photoshop,

and used Free Transform (Command/

Ctrl-T) to enlarge and stretch them.

� Although the model shots would com-

plete the movie look, the Detroit images’

colors were key in producing the surreal

sensation Vasiljevic wanted. Before she

could boost their color, she needed

to return the photos to their original

contrast and color prior to scanning. She

added Curves adjustment layers to make

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the midtones darker, but was careful to

mask areas to prevent highlights from

being blown or darkening shadows too

much. Then she added a Selective Color

adjustment layer and increased the Reds,

Yellows, and Cyans in both background

images. “I used to apply Hue/Saturation,

but I think it alters an image too much,”

she says. “Selective Color does a better

job of punching color.”

� For the image of the model’s face,

Vasiljevic added a base Curves adjust-

ment layer to lighten the midtones and

shadows (while masking the cheek and

nose highlights from the adjustment).

She added another Curves adjustment

layer, fi lled its mask with black, and

painted with white on the eyes to isolate

them. She then pushed up the curve to

enhance the whites of the eyes. Com-

paring the face image to the intended

background image, she noticed the skin

appeared cold, so she warmed the face

with a Color Balance adjustment layer

and moved the Cyan/Red slider toward

Red. Once the face was placed into the

background image, it was too sharp

against the background, so she applied

a slight Gaussian blur with a mask to

soften areas of the skin.

� With the studio shot of the model’s

hand and purse, Vasiljevic pumped the

Reds and Yellows with a Selective Color

adjustment layer to match the color of

the skin and nail polish with the back-

ground colors. She then increased the

tonal contrast between the model and

background with a Curves adjustment

layer that deepened the shadows and

midtones, giving the purse and hand a

sense of outdoor lighting from behind.

The purse appeared too sharp, and while

a Gaussian Blur wouldn’t work here, a

texture would. She chose Filter > Artistic

> Film Grain and set Grain to 4, increased

Highlight Area to 3, and Intensity to 1 to

enhance the purse’s surface while de-

creasing its sharpness. “I use Film Grain

as an easy way to tone down a digital

image that looks too much like a studio

shot,” she explains.

Natasha Vasiljevic

c/o Suzy Johnston, rep

416.863.5115/877.737.7464

[email protected]

www.natashav.com



http://www.natashav.com

5 MARCH 2005


PHOTOSHOP FIX 6

TAKE OUT THE FRINGE ELEMENT

E S S E N T I A L S

Color-based selections can be fast and convenient but they often invite an unwanted guest—a bit of color fringe left at the edges. With minimal preparation, you can use Levels to not only eliminate the fringe, but also control edge softness to make a selection blend with a new background.

Many selection techniques require

you to carefully trace around edges.

When you encounter an image with

a fairly uniform color in either the

foreground or background, you can

save time with the Magic Wand tool

or the Select > Color Range command

to perform a color-based selection.

However, these approaches some-

times leave the background color at

the edges and create a harder edge

than you’d like.

� Open “MOUSETRAP.TIF,” double-click

the Background layer to convert it to

a new layer, and name it “Mousetrap.”

Open “HAND.TIF,” select the move tool

(V), drag the image to the mousetrap im-

age while pressing Shift to center it, and

name the layer “Hand.”

� Since the hand has a nearly uniform

background color, it should be easy to

isolate it. Select the magic wand tool (W),

set Tolerance to 10 in the Options bar,

and make sure Contiguous is unchecked.

Click in the black background to select

it. Although you’ll use a layer mask to

fi ne-tune the composite in a moment,

briefl y check the selection’s edges by

pressing Delete/Backspace. Turn off the

visibility of the Mousetrap layer, zoom in,

and press Command/Ctrl-H to hide the

selection marquee. A bit of background

remains around the hand—enough to

be objectionable, but not more than you

can remove with this technique. Undo

(Command/Ctrl-Z) to return the back-

ground to the Hand layer, and turn on

the visibility of the Mousetrap layer.

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� To convert the background (instead

of the hand) to a mask, Option/Alt-click

the Add layer mask icon at the bottom

of the Layers palette. The hand’s edges

are sharp because almost all of the pixels

in the layer mask are either pure white

or pure black. To view the mask directly,

Option/Alt-click the layer mask thumb-

nail in the Hand layer. Option/Alt-click

again to display the image.

� You can soften the edges by making

some of the edge pixels in the mask

gray, which is the equivalent of using

the Feather command on a marquee

selection. Click the layer mask thumbnail

on the Hand layer, choose Filter > Blur >

Gaussian Blur, set the Radius to 6 pixels,

and click OK. The blurring softens the

edges, but shows a bit more of the black

background. That’s fi ne because you’ll

be tightening up the edges in the next

step. As a general rule, you should blur

the mask roughly twice as much as you’d

want for the fi nal composited image.

� With the layer mask thumbnail still se-

lected, press Command/Ctrl-L to access

the Levels dialog box. You’ve probably

used Levels to adjust an image’s tonality,

but now you’ll use it on the layer mask to

increase its contrast. Dragging the black

Input slider to the right makes more of

the dark-gray pixels in the mask pure

black, effectively shrinking it. Drag it

until the fringe disappears from around

the hand. To further sharpen the mask,

drag the white Input slider to the left,

which makes the light-gray mask pixels

white. If you’re unclear why this works,

try Option/Alt-clicking the layer mask

thumbnail before you access Levels.

You’ll see the mask appear to grow and

shrink as you adjust its contrast by mov-

ing the Levels sliders.

Gary Young has written Photoshop

courses taught worldwide in training

centers and online. Contact him at

[email protected].

BY GARY YOUNG

DOWNLOAD “HAND.TIF” AND “MOUSETRAP.TIF” FROM WWW.PHOTOSHOPFIX.COM, MARCH 2005 ISSUE.



http://www.photoshopfix.com

7 MARCH 2005


PHOTOSHOP FIX 8

TRUST THE NUMBERS

T O O L S

It’s diffi cult to read numbers in the Info palette while you are pushing curves or dragging sliders because moving the eyedropper tool makes numbers disappear. Instead of wasting time going

back and forth with the eyedropper to get color readouts, ensure your color adjustments are accurate with the color sampler tool.

� When a client asked me to replace the

classic red of a tricycle with their corpo-

rate color, I started by creating a chip of

the desired color next to the bike. I’ve re-

produced the image with the corporate

color chip for you. Open “TRICYCLE.PSD,”

and follow my process by selecting the

color sampler tool. (Press Shift-I until it

appears in the toolbox.) Click once in

the color chip to place a color sampler

point—a crosshair and a number. Press

Command/Ctrl while click-dragging

a sampler point to move it around. If

you make a mistake, Option/Alt-click

the sampler to remove it. Now click in

the fl at, colored area at the back of the

tricycle seat for a second color sampler

point. (You can place up to four points in

an image.) Placing a color sampler point

automatically expands the Info palette,

and you’ll see readouts corresponding to

your two points. Notice the readouts are

in CMYK, but by clicking an eyedropper

to the left of a readout, you can change

it to RGB, Grayscale, or another option

such as Total Ink. Control/Right-click on

a color sampler point to access a contex-

tual menu with some additional options.

� I’ve already created a selection of

the tricycle’s red areas for you, so select

the Target chip layer, move to the Paths

palette, and Command/Ctrl-click the Red

Regions path to load it as a selection.

Create a Hue/Saturation adjustment

layer by clicking the Create new fi ll or

adjustment layer icon at the bottom of

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the Layers palette. In the resulting dialog

box, you’ll notice that as you drag the

Hue/Saturation sliders, the Sampler 1

readout numbers do not change. The

Sampler 2 readout displays two sets of

numbers: The original values and the

adjusted values. Your job is to bring the

values for Sampler 2 closer to Sampler 1.

Start by dragging Hue all the way to the

right, decrease Saturation to –60, and

click OK.

� Duplicate the Hue/Saturation adjust-

ment layer by pressing Command/Ctrl-J.

Now choose Layer > Change Layer Con-

tent > Curves. Press Command/Ctrl-1

to access the Cyan channel. Reduce the

amount of ink by dragging the curve

down about 3/4 of the way across the

grid until the Cyan value of Sampler 2 in

the Info palette matches the Cyan value

of Sampler 1. Access the Magneta chan-

nel by pressing Command/Ctrl-2, but this

time push up the curve until you match

the Magenta value of Sampler 2 with the

Magenta value of Sampler 1. After press-

ing Command/Ctrl-3 to access the Yellow

channel, drag the curve down slightly to

match the Yellow value of Sampler 2 with

the Yellow value of Sampler 1. The tri-

cycle now matches the target color, but

it appears fl at. To create the wider range

of values evident with metallic paint, add

a bit of contrast to the image in the form

of another adjustment layer or a slight

S-curve on the Black plate of the Curves

adjustment layer.

Make a habit of arranging the order

of your readouts the same way each

time. For example, I make Sampler

1 the target color and Sampler 2 the

color to be adjusted. When necessary,

I use Sampler 3 to evaluate light areas

and Sampler 4 for dark areas.

In the absence of a calibrated moni-

tor and a color management system,

matching color to a predefi ned color

chip is remarkably accurate. In CMYK,

the numbers don’t lie. If you have to

match a given color, fi nd the number

of a PMS color that matches it, and

place a chip of that color in the docu-

ment. Use the color correction tools

to modify the document’s color until

it matches with the color chip.

Simon Tuckett is an illustrator and

retoucher in Toronto. For more infor-

mation, visit www.simontuckett.com.

BY SIMON TUCKETT

DOWNLOAD “TRICYCLE.PSD” FROM WWW.PHOTOSHOPFIX.COM, MARCH 2005 ISSUE.


http://www.simontuckett.com


9 MARCH 2005

BEFORE


PHOTOSHOP FIX 10

FILTER OUT THE FLAWS

T E C H N I Q U E S

The Dust & Scratches fi lter has a bad reputation for destroying image detail. However, if you work from the assumption that Dust & Scratches isn’t the only solution for repairing an image but a jumpstart to rescue it from tedious spotting, the fi lter can become a welcome addition to your everyday toolkit.

� Open “SCRATCHES.JPG,” and save it

as a Photoshop (PSD) fi le. Obviously, this

Civil War-era photo has so many dust

spots and scratches that it would take

hours to repair each defect individually.

To remove the bulk of them, you can use

the Dust & Scratches fi lter. First, keep the

original image as an unedited reference

by duplicating the background layer

(Command/Ctrl-J).

� With the duplicate layer active, zoom

in on a particularly damaged area and

select Noise > Dust & Scratches from the

Filter menu. Arrange the fi lter’s dialog

box so you can see it alongside your im-

age, and make sure Preview is checked.

As a starting point, move the Radius and

Threshold sliders all the way to the left.

The Radius setting determines the size of

what the fi lter considers an image defect,

so you’ll want to keep it at the lowest

possible value. Click on the Radius slider,

and use the Up Arrow key (or your mouse

wheel) to slowly increase the Radius.

Watch the preview, and try to remove

the most defects without destroying too

many important details. For this image,

I chose a Radius of 13. Don’t click OK yet

because there’s still more to do.

� The image looks pretty blurred, but

the Threshold slider can take care of that.

This setting determines how dissimilar

the pixels should be before they’re con-

sidered a defect to be eliminated. Click

on the Threshold slider, and slowly bring

the value up. You’ll notice an almost

instant increase in sharpness, but if you

go too far the defects eliminated in the

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last step will start to return. You want the

Threshold setting to be as high as pos-

sible, as long as you can’t see the defects

resurface. I decided a Threshold level of

6 would sharpen the image just enough.

Fine-tune the settings until you’re satis-

fi ed with the result, and click OK.

� Zoom in and out on different areas

of the image, and toggle the duplicate

layer’s visibility. Both the good and

bad effects of the fi lter will be obvious.

You’ll quickly see that while many of the

defects are gone, there are also some

important image details that have been

eliminated. Bring back these details by

selecting the Dust & Scratches layer and

clicking the Add layer mask icon at the

bottom of the Layers palette. Click the

layer mask thumbnail on the layer, and

paint in your image with a soft black

brush to let the Background layer show

through. Keep toggling the layer visibility

off and on so you can see the details that

need to be restored. It won’t be as much

work as you might think—in this case,

just the eyes, hair, lips, and some uniform

details. If you accidentally reveal more

defects than you want to, simply paint

over the same area of the layer mask with

a white brush.

� Press Command/Ctrl-0 to view the

entire image and toggle the visibility of

the fi lter layer one last time. You’ll see

that the majority of the defects are gone!

From here, you can add a new layer and

use the healing brush or the clone stamp

tool to fi x the remaining defects.(Check

Use All Layers in the Options bar.)

Press Command/Ctrl-+ or – to zoom

in and out of the image.

When zoomed in, press Page Up or

Page Down to move the image up or

down one screen. Add Command/Ctrl

to the Page Up or Down keys to move

the image left or right one screen.

Press the Spacebar to quickly ac-

cess the hand tool. Press Command/

Ctrl-Space or Option/Alt-Space to

access the zoom in or out tool.

Doug Nelson is a freelance writer,

technical editor, and founder of

RetouchPRO.com, an online commu-

nity for photo retouchers. For more in-

formation, visit www.retouchpro.com

or e-mail [email protected].

BY DOUG NELSON

DOWNLOAD “SCRATCHES.JPG” FROM WWW.PHOTOSHOPFIX.COM, MARCH 2005 ISSUE.


http://RetouchPRO.com

http://www.retouchpro.com



11 MARCH 2005


PHOTOSHOP FIX 12

HOW DO YOU PROCESS INFORMATION?

S T U D I O

If you shoot digitally, you may need to choose between two post-processing workfl ows before you even snap your camera’s shutter—either shoot in Raw mode or save images to the memory card as JPEGs. When photographer Rob Stuehrk shoots Denver Broncos games, both workfl ows are ideal. Take a look at the pros and cons of saving Raw and JPEG fi les and determine the best workfl ow for your shoots.

� The Associated Press expects Stuehrk

to deliver his photos directly after a

game. JPEGs are virtually client-ready

when they are written to a camera’s

data card due to their universal fi le

format. Saving images as JPEG fi les are

tantalizing to event photographers

like Stuehrk who need to do little, if

any, post-processing on images. It’s

perfect for photojournalists who take

numerous images, batch-process quick

adjustments in Photoshop, and upload

to a server. But during a football game,

exposure can change dramatically as the

action moves from endzone to endzone

and from sunlight to shadow. By the end

of a game, Stuehrk usually has a camera

full of images with extreme differences

in lighting and color. Since Stuehrk also

uses the images for his personal stock

sales, he often needs to apply intensive

adjustments to produce stock-image

quality from the exposures.

When a photographer trips the shutter

on a digital camera, the analog light

information is received by the camera’s

sensor and is converted to a digital signal

as a Raw capture. When the capture is

saved onto a camera’s Compact Flash

card as a JPEG, the Raw information is

processed according to the white point

of the camera’s computer, along with

the tone, color saturation, sharpening,

and contrast characteristics specifi ed

by the manufacturer. This means a JPEG

may be degraded slightly (e.g. blurred,

haloed) even before importing from the

camera. When a camera saves as a JPEG,

it reduces the fi le to an 8-bit image with

only 256 shades of gray per channel. If

an image requires extensive editing or

needs to be signifi cantly enlarged, it

becomes subject to possible banding

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and posterization. The image degrades

a little after every edit and save—not an

ideal result for stock photos. Photoshop

features such as Shadow/Highlight and

Channel Mixer can be hard on an image

if not used carefully to preserve image

quality. A professional’s JPEG workfl ow

is most successful when there’s control

over the lighting, exposure, and white

balance while shooting, which is a luxury

Stuehrk doesn’t have. While the Associ-

ated Press will accept adjusted JPEGs,

Stuehrk cannot compromise the quality

of the images for his stock library.

� Shooting Raw can give Stuehrk con-

siderable fl exibility and control over his

images because he can have uncom-

pressed, white balance-independent

digital negatives. A Raw capture’s data

is stored with just tagged information

about the image’s exposure. Instead of

setting the white point, color space, and

image contrast in the camera, Stuehrk

can visually adjust these elements later

using Photoshop CS’ Raw converter,

Adobe Camera Raw. He can maintain

full-image integrity while adjusting

blown-out highlights or underexposed

areas. The Raw captures remain in their

original, robust, 16-bit mode and provide

him with many more shades of gray per

channel for smooth tonal gradation, even

at larger print sizes. Shooting in Raw is

benefi cial for photographers who need

fl exibility with the fi les they offer to their

clients. It’s great for wedding photogra-

phers who want post-processing control

for formal shots such as a bride’s white

dress against skin tones or dark colors.

Even fi ne-art photographers can benefi t

from editing and archiving raw images

for sales or converting images to black-

and-white while still in the Raw format.

But with all the information in a 16-bit

Raw fi le, post-processing in Adobe Cam-

era Raw can be an involved process and

requires more skill to have a successful

and effi cient workfl ow. Stuehrk would

not only have to spend time after the

game processing all the Raw captures,

but also convert them to an acceptable

format for the Associated Press.

In this case, Stuehrk could have the best

of both worlds because his camera can

save images as Raw and JPEG simultane-

ously. At the end of the game, he can

download the JPEGs onto his laptop,

make adjustments in Photoshop to the

two or three best images, and upload

them to the newswire. Then when he re-

turns to his studio, he can open the Raw

captures in Adobe Camera Raw, expose

the images to his liking, and archive them

for his stock sales. Not every photo shoot

necessitates both workfl ows like this.

If you have the option between saving

images as Raw or JPEG, you fi rst need to

consider the control you have over the

lighting, decide the image quality you

want, and determine how much post-

processing time you can allow yourself.

Jay Kinghorn is an Adobe Photoshop

Certifi ed Expert and co-author of the

upcoming Perfect Digital Photography.

Contact him at [email protected]. Rob

Stuehrk is owner of Agile Imaging,

specializing in coverage of events

such as the Centrix Financial Grand

Prix of Denver and University of Colo-

rado Buffalos Football. Contact him at

[email protected].

BY JAY KINGHORN




PHOTOSHOP FIX 14

GIVE YOUR MOUSE A BREAK

E X P E R T T I P S

These keyboard shortcuts will keep your fi ngers fl ying from the moment you create a new fi le until you make the fi nal touch-ups on your image.

GROUNDWORK

• To open a fl attened version of a layered

PSD fi le, press Shift-Option/Alt and

double-click the image. This works as

long as the fi le was saved using Prefer-

ences > File Handling > Maximize PSD

File Compatibility. (OS X only)

• To create a document the same size as

an open document, choose File > New,

and select the open document’s fi le

name from the Preset menu. (CS only)

• For a quick way to see the actual pixel

dimensions of a document, Option/

Alt-click the image info area at the bot-

tom of the document window (or the

Status bar in Windows), and you’ll see

the document’s Width, Height, Chan-

nels, and Resolution (1) .

• To scroll through all open documents

simultaneously, select the hand tool,

and check Scroll All Windows in the

Options bar. Select the zoom tool, and

check Zoom All Windows to zoom all

open documents at once. (CS only)

• While dragging out a guide from the

rulers, press Option/Alt to change the

orientation of the guide.

• To fi nd the center of an image, Control/

Right-click on a ruler and choose Per-

cent from the contextual menu (2) .

• To add canvas to an image, drag out a

crop with the crop tool. Now drag the

crop handles outside the image, and

press Return/Enter to apply the crop.

The area outside the image fi lls with

the Background Color. To add transpar-

ency instead, convert the Background

layer by double-clicking it (3) .

• To use cropping dimensions from one

image to another, apply a crop to the

fi rst image, click Front Image in the

Options bar, and you’ll see the Width,

Height, and Resolution entered. Switch

to the other fi le, and drag the crop tool.

The aspect ratio is constrained and will

be at the desired dimensions (4) .

FOR

US

ER

S O

F P

HO

TO

SH

OP

6 A

ND

LA

TE

R. C

OM

MA

ND

S A

ND

IMA

GE

S S

HO

WN

IN P

HO

TO

SH

OP

CS

.

• To play a single command in an Action,

double-click the name of the command

while pressing Command/Ctrl.

• To view the Actions palette as clickable

buttons, choose Button Mode from the

palette’s menu (5) .

TRANSFORMATIONS

• Free Transform (Command/Ctrl-T) a

selection from its center by pressing

Option/Alt while dragging a Transform

box handle.

• To distort a transform box, press

Command/Ctrl while dragging.

• To skew, Press Shift-Command/Ctrl

while dragging.

• To change perspective, press Shift-

Option-Command (Shift-Alt-Ctrl)

while dragging.

• To repeat a transformation setting,

load a selection, and press Shift-

Command/Ctrl-T.

• To create a copy on its own layer while

creating a duplicate transformation,

load the selection, and press Shift-

Option-Command-T (Shift-Alt-Ctrl-T).

MASKS

• After adding a mask to a layer, press

Command/Ctrl-Tilde (~) to target the

image thumbnail on the layer. Target

the mask thumbnail by pressing

Command/Ctrl-Backslash (\).

• Press Backslash to toggle the display of

a layer mask (as a red rubylith overlay).

In the Channels palette, the shortcut

toggles the channel’s visibility.

• To duplicate a layer mask to another

layer, select the target layer (unmasked

layer), and click-drag the layer mask

thumbnail of the layer with the desired

mask to the Add a mask icon at the

bottom of the Layers palette.

• To paste a selection into a layer mask,

Option/Alt-click the layer mask thumb-

nail, then Paste (Command/Ctrl-V).

• To add a layer mask to hide a selection

(as opposed to the default of revealing

a selection), Option/Alt-click the Add a

layer mask icon.

CURVES

• To access the Curves dialog box with

the previous settings applied, press

Option-Command-M (Alt-Ctrl-M).

• To show additional grid lines, Option/

Alt-click in the grid area.

• Tab-Control/Right-click to cycle

through multiple Curves points. Add

Shift to go in the opposite direction.

• To move multiple Curves points, Shift-

click each one fi rst.

ARTISTIC TOUCHES

• To sample a color for the Background

Color swatch in the toolbox, press

Option/Alt while clicking with the

eyedropper tool.

• Press Shift-Delete/Backspace to access

the Fill command dialog box.

• The paint bucket has two additional

Modes in the Options bar: Behind fi lls

transparent images, and Clear erases

based on the color you click on (similar

to the magic wand tool).

• With all vector/shape tools, the Comma

and Period keys move to the previous

or next preset in the Style list in the

Options bar. Add Shift to move directly

to the fi rst or last style.

• To access the Brushes palette while

using a brush, Control/Right-click

anywhere in the image area.

• To select the airbrush, press Shift-

Option/Alt-P. When selected, the

numeric keys change the Flow. When

deselected, they change Opacity. Press

Shift while entering numbers to use

the opposite setting. (PS 7 and later)

• To assign a keyboard shortcut to a

fi lter, choose Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts

> Application Menus > Filter. (CS only)

BY JULIEANNE KOST


15 MARCH 2005

Photoshop Fix (ISSN 1548-0399) is published monthly by Dy-namic Graphics Group, 6000 North Forest Park Drive, Peoria, IL, 61614-3592, 309.688.8800, Fax: 309.688.8515, for $110 per year in the U.S., $127.33 USD per year in Canada. March 2005, Volume 2, Number 3. Cana dian GST Account No. 125145193. Canada Post Permit No. 2493675. Postmaster: Send change of address forms to Photoshop Fix, P.O. Box 9035, Maple Shade, NJ, 08052-9639.

EditorSheila Julien

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